Collections

Introduction

With more than 20,000 objects that span the history of civilization, the Fleming Museum's collection offers a unique opportunity to study visual cultures from early Mesopotamia through contemporary America. The breadth of the collections supports our mission of encouraging visitors to understand, appreciate, and interpret our worldwide cultural heritage. Art and artifacts from Ancient Egypt, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas are presented in our permanent collection galleries as well as in changing exhibitions.

A new age of access to the Fleming Museum’s collections has arrived with the launch of our online collections search feature that enables you to browse and view over 20,000 objects from the Museum’s permanent collection. This online search tool allows students, teachers, scholars, and art and history lovers of all stripes to browse or search for artworks and artifacts, and view images and information for objects both on view in the galleries and tucked away in storage.

AFRICAN

Composed primarily of sculpture from West and Central Africa, the Fleming's collection includes an 18th-century Benin Queen Mother sculpture head, Ashanti gold weights, Mende sowo mask, as well as 19th-century beadwork and carved wooden pieces from Southeast Africa. Other highlights include contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, such as a telephone-wire basket from South Africa and plastic Ibeji figures from Nigeria.

AMERICAN

The Fleming's collection offers a glimpse of the breadth and diversity of American art, with particular depth in 19th-and 20th-century landscapes; early 20th-century prints, drawings, and photographs; early Rookwood pottery; Vermont wedding gowns; and works in a variety of media by Vermont artists active from the mid-19th century through the present. Highlights include works by John James Audubon, Albert Bierstadt, Ilya Bolotowsky, Margaret Bourke-White, Charles Demuth, Charles Louis Heyde, Louis Hine, Winslow Homer, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Sol Lewitt, Glenn Ligon, Florine Stettheimer, Alfred Stieglitz, Claire Van Vliet, Andy Warhol, and Kara Walker.

ANCIENT

With Near Eastern, Egyptian, Mediterranean, and prehistoric Vermont objects, the Ancient Art and Archaeology collection encompasses broad geographic regions and historical periods. Highlights include a 3,000-year-old Assyrian bas-relief from the palace of Assurnasirpal II, Sumerian cuneiform tablets, Greek pottery, Coptic textiles, and more than 400 Egyptian objects, including a late Dynastic mummy and coffin.

ASIAN

The Fleming's Asian collection is notable for its Shang Dynasty bronze vessels, Tang Dynasty Tomb figures, and Qing Dynasty textiles from China; East Asian bronzes; and Korean ceramics, as well as Japanese lacquerware, calligraphy, and prints, including a complete set of Hiroshige's 53 Stations of the Tokaido. Recent additions include Thai, Cambodian, and Burmese sculpture and decorative arts objects from the renowned Doris Duke Collection, as well as examples of Indian art from a range of periods.

EUROPEAN

From 13th-century illuminated manuscripts to contemporary prints, the European collection features paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by artists such as Max Beckman, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Honoré Daumier, Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Francisco Goya, William Hogarth, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and Auguste Rodin. Strengths include 16th-and 17th-century Northern European paintings and prints, 18th-century British portraits, and a complete edition of the Napoleonic Description de l'Egypte.

NATIVE AMERICAN

Recently reinstalled in the newly renovated James B. Petersen Gallery of Native American Cultures, the Native American collection brings together more than 2000 objects that date from c. 800 CE to the present and represent diverse culture groups from across North and South America. The Museum's holdings include bead- and quillwork from the Ogden B. Read Northern Plains Collection; Southwest ceramics, baskets, and textiles; Northwest Coast masks, carvings, and an exceptional Chilkat blanket; and the "Colchester Jar," a St. Lawrence Iroquoian-style ceramic vessel (c. 1500) that was unearthed in Vermont in the early 19th century.

OCEANIC

Tatanua ceremonial masks from New Ireland, a Trobriand shield, and contemporary Aboriginal paintings from Australia are among the many masks, shields, body ornaments, garments, architectural fragments, and trade beads in the Fleming's Oceanic holdings. Geographic regions represented include New Guinea, Easter Island, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, the Trobriand Islands, Aboriginal Australia, and the Marquesas Islands.

PRE-COLUMBIAN

Spanning nearly 3,000 years, up to the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century, the Pre-Columbian collection covers a geographic region that includes Mexico, Central America, and Peru. Most notable are the Museum's ceramics, which range from elegant jars and bowls to striking human and animal effigies. The collection also contains wonderful examples of Pre-Columbian textiles and ceremonial stone carvings